


A little piece of Heaven

by mlickko



Category: Bleach
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-06 22:46:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16396532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlickko/pseuds/mlickko
Summary: The first time Ichigo met a shinigami, he died. Quickly realizing that Soul Society is no heaven, he aims to make it into one. However, turning a dream into reality is a long and difficult journey, especially if you are Kurosaki Ichigo and you stand in the center of everything. A long, serious tale full of adventure, drama, conspiracies and adult themes.(Pairings not a main focus)





	1. Prologue: Heavenly Hell, Hellish Heaven

**Prologue: Heavenly Hell, hellish heaven.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

 

**xxx**

Blood.

Everywhere he looked, he saw nothing but red and helplessness overcame him. He wasn't able to do it. He couldn't save them. His hands trembled, and he heard something dripping on the cold ground beneath him.

It was blood.

His blood. The blood of his younger sister that loved to cook for him and always called him 'Ichi-nii'. The blood of his other younger sister who always acted as a tomboy who loved to play the football with her friends. The blood of his father that always woke him up with his crazy antics.

He glanced at his hands covered in that gruesome red stuff and felt tears swelling in his eyes. It was the same as 6 years ago when his mother had died and blood had covered his hands.

He couldn't do anything.

Not even registering his own body, lying across the road, torn up beyond recognition, he arched backwards and shouted in despair. His voice echoed in the dark night that surrounded him.

He yelled.

He screamed.

He cried.

He let his emotions go wild until his insides dried up and his vocal cords failed.

Not knowing what to do, he felt weak like never before.

A weak voice, that only a few minutes before had explained to him the way the world he could have always seen worked, called to him.

"Boy..."

With his hands in his hair, he turned around to see the small figure clad in black lying near the hedge, crawling, trying to get up, but failing to do so.

"Shinigami... you are alive?" His rough voice was devoid of emotions, yet his surprise was clear.

The raven-haired female got to a sitting position and nodded with a minimal amount of movement.

"Yes... we, Shinigami, are more durable than humans... injuries of this level can't kill me..." Despite her claim, it was obvious she was having problems breathing. Her hand, clenching her shoulder, was covering a gaping hole, courtesy of a dead monster lying nearby.

"Boy... I'm not a nice person... so I won't try to comfort you... but I need to know if you understand the situation." The shinigami asked, jerking when she tried to take a deep breath.

The person in front of her glanced at his surroundings with blank eyes and swallowed hard.

"... they are dead... that thing... ate them." He murmured but then felt the contents of his stomach enter his mouth and the sound of vomit splattering on the asphalt filled the air.

Hesitating, she looked at his face and realized he was in a pitiful state.

Who could blame him?

Seeing his two little sisters get eaten by a hollow must have broken his spirit.

"I... " She trailed off and looked away, ashamed of her own pitiful self.

It was her job, to protect the humans from the hollows and she failed to do so. In a morbid sense of the word, her failure was spectacular.

"... yes. However, I can feel that your father is still alive...,"

Her words shook him up a little, and she saw first hints of emotions on his face. Clenching his fists, he stood up and dash towards the still body of his parent.

His father was lying on his stomach, his face hidden from his view, but he didn't care. Hastily, he put his two fingers on his father's neck, checking for a pulse, feeling it after a moment.

"At least you survived, Dad." She barely heard his words that held all of his emotions he could produce at the moment.

She saw his legs buckling under him as he sat next to his father.

"Maybe it's your aloofness that saved you, ha-ha." The boy laughed, tears freely flowing from his eyes.

He sat there for a few minutes, checking for any injury. Finding none, he slowly got up and walked towards the shinigami.

"You're right, he looks fine, he's just unconscious. He only hit his head and has a few cuts and bruises, but nothing serious. After a good sleep, he should be just fine." He stared at the shinigami, trying his best not to glance at his right, at the huge pool of blood.

Her eyes caught the glimpse of it but she held her tongue.

She knew nothing she would or even could say, would lessen his pain.

"What happened to... what happened to them?" He asked quietly, his fists clenched again.

The shinigami sighed and held her side when a pain shot through her.

"Since we were able to purify the hollow, the souls of your sisters are now free and they joined the Reincarnation cycle, waiting to be reborn in the World of the Living as different people. They are not suffering or anything like that." She said and noticed the tiniest smile form on his face.

"Good... that's good." He whispered and turned his head towards the heavens, quietly praying for their souls.

She gave him a moment, then spoke again.

"But you are still here, which is something I can't allow. I'm sorry to be blunt but ..." His empty laugh made her cringe a little as he cut her off.

"I'm dead, I know. It was hard not to notice. Don't worry that's the least worrying thing right now for me. So... what do I do now, shinigami?"

"Kuchiki Rukia."

"Excuse me?"

The shinigami pointed at herself and repeated her words.

"Kuchiki Rukia. That is my name, not 'shinigami'." She offered him a hand.

After staring at her for a full minute, he grabbed it and nodded to her.

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo. Nice to meet you, Kuchiki Rukia."

The shinigami called Rukia, faintly smiled at him and grabbed the sword, that was resting next to her.

"Ichigo then. What you have to do now, is simple. I need to perform a Konso on you, so you can move on to the Afterlife. I would let you stay here, but it would be pointless. You can't communicate with the living people and the longer you stay here, the greater the chance you'd turn into a hollow yourself."

Ichigo stiffened at the mentioning of the word hollow, but kept himself calm.

"I see... and what about you? Are you sure you can perform it? You say you're fine, but honestly, you look like shit."

She waved her hand dismissively, not bothering to even get angry at him.

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me. I'll stay here for a while and oversee your father so that nothing would happen to him. Don't worry though, using some of my tools, I can implant a memory in his mind, so he wouldn't have to live with the truth about the deaths of his children."

Closing his eyes for a moment, Ichigo sighed.

"Thank you."

She quickly protested.

"Don't thank me. I... you should be angry at me. It was my job to protect you but I failed. You should take that sword and kill me... I don't know why you still haven't done it ..." Rukia tried to raise her voice, but her broken ribs were too painful and she had to stop talking.

"It doesn't matter who's guilty, so ... don't. Just do the Konso."

She gulped when his voice hardened but it didn't look like he was angry at her.

Motioning him to kneel, she grabbed her sword and readied it.

"Just one more thing before I'll let you pass to the Afterlife."

Ichigo raised his head a little and looked at her expectantly.

"What is it?"

She stared at him for a while.

"I told you before but, as a human, you possessed quite the unusual amount of a spiritual energy. Therefore, it is possible that, once you find yourself in the Soul Society, that energy will awaken and you may become a shinigami, just like me."

He raised his eyebrows and glanced at his hands, covered in a dried blood.

"Is it that rare?"

She shook her head.

"No, it happens from time to time. Once the souls are in Soul Society, they sometimes awaken their hidden potential and become a full-fledged shinigami. If that happens, try to make your way to the center of Soul Society, the Seireitei and look for me. I have a feeling that you could become quite the shinigami." Ichigo lightly snorted and grabbed her hands that held the sword.

"We'll just have to see."

Feeling the hilt of her sword tapping him on the forehead, a bright light surrounded him and he knew nothing more.

...

_Certain Shop in Karakura Town_

"That... can't be right." A tall, lean-built man with light skin and gray eyes furiously typed on his computer, looking at the screen with wide eyes.

His hair was messy, light-blond, with few strands framing the sides of his face and hanging between his eyes.

Next to him, on the table was resting a stripped dark green and white bucket hat, which he wore most of the time.

The man cursed and grabbing the hat, he ran to the entrance of his shop and resolutely opened it.

"I need to change the plans if it's true." He muttered and in the next instance, he vanished from the sight.

...

Five minutes later, he stood above a resting female shinigami and looked around himself in alarm. When he spotted the body he was looking for, he flashed next to it and tried to feel a pulse, only to find out that the body was already lifeless and cold.

"Damn."

In his line of vision he noticed another body he knew.

Trying to feel pulse again, he sighed in relief. This body was still alive and so he could talk to that person later.

He returned to the shinigami and shook her up lightly, so she would wake up.

She stirred but after continuous poking from the shopkeeper, she finally opened her eyes and glanced above her.

Seeing the man grinning at her, she recoiled in shock.

"You?"

The man nodded and pointed behind him.

"I think it's clear I'm not here to harm you. On the contrary, I'd like to offer you help, seeing as you are in no condition to travel back to the Soul Society."

She squinted her eyes suspiciously.

"Why would you do that? How can I trust you? You realize what they teach us about you in the Academy, don't you?"

Shopkeeper just laughed.

"I do and yes, you shouldn't trust me. However, do you have any other option? You'll eventually die if you'll leave those injuries unattended, you know. Wouldn't that bring shame to your clan, Kuchiki Rukia?"

Her jaw almost fell on the floor and in a panic she tried to grab her sword, but her broken ribs prevented her from doing so and she yelped from the pain.

"H-how do you know my name?"

With a dazzling smile, the man pointed to himself.

"It would be weirder if I didn't, don't you think, Kuchiki-san?"

Since it was obvious she wasn't sure what to do, he crouched next to her.

"Why don't you tell me what happened here? It looks kind of... messy."

He sighed, when he noticed how she cringed at those words and prepared for the worst.

...

 _'This is bad.'_ The shopkeeper thought for himself, looking over his shop-assistant's shoulder as he tended to shinigami's wounds.

_'I only hope his nature will keep him alive for the moment and that with some good luck, he can awaken.'_

"What do we do now, boss?" His assistant asked as his hands were glowing green, providing the shinigami with a healing energy.

He glanced behind him when he heard no response.

The shopkeeper stood there, his face hidden with a fan.

"For now, we'll let things go freely and see what happens."

Assistant visibly frowned.

"Isn't that dangerous? Shouldn't we send help, or a guidance?"

The man in a hat shook his head.

"No. I think our young friend can take care of himself well enough. This way, 'that' man will have to delay his plans too. Don't worry though. I'll call her and ask her if she can contact her old acquaintances. He'll be fine, Tessai."

His assistant, Tessai just nodded. They both knew each other from when they were little so there was no need for any doubt.

 _'He'll be fine.'_ The man repeated for himself in his mind, as if trying to ease his nervous mind.

…

_Soul Society_

Kurosaki Ichigo, not so long ago a not-so-normal teenager, woke up in the middle of nothing, with a numb throbbing in his head.

He rolled on his back and with opened eyes looked at the sky above him.

It was possibly the sunniest day he has seen in the last few months and if he focused, he was sure he could hear the quiet rustle of the wind passing through the trees surrounding him. He was lying on a rather warm grass that slightly tickled his skin.

His mind was hazy, as if something tried to mess with his memories and for a moment, he felt lost, as he couldn't remember where the hell he was.

As he tried to get up, he grabbed his head and tried to suppress a fairly painful headache.

When he did that, he noticed that his hands were dirty.

Upon closer inspection he realized they were covered in a large amount of dried up blood. The sight made him sick.

Glancing on his right, he saw a small lake nearby. His stomach still upset, he begrudgingly got up and slowly walked towards it, intent on washing his hands.

While he took the short stroll, he tried to look around and gather as much information as he could on where he was.

 _'I'm... sure that this isn't a place where I live.'_ He thought and raised his head when he spotted an old looking building in afar.

After he arrived to the lake, he noticed that the water inside it was crystal clear, so he drank first and washed his hands afterwards. It would be such a waste to contaminate the water with blood _._

Water poured into his stomach in large amounts and realized just how thirsty he was. When the cold fluid passed his throat and entered his stomach, he burped and massaged his neck. Even though he wasn't sure why, he knew he must have yelled a lot, because his throat was as dry as a desert.

Next thing he did was to wash his hands and watching the blood flow through the water, he felt as if something lifted a heavy burden from his being.

Shaking his head, he lifted himself and turned towards the old buildings.

'Maybe somebody who could explain the situation lives there.'

However, with each step he took to get closer, the worse feeling settled in his gut.

Something was wrong and his instincts were screaming at him.

Trying to suppress them, as he needed to learn where he was, he slowed down his pace and walked with more caution towards the small hut nearest to him. The doors moved in the wind, opened, but he heard no noise coming out of the tiny house, and felt his instincts almost trying to stop him.

Ignoring them for the moment he grabbed the doorknob, taking extra care not to create any sound, and in small nudges pushed the doors open, so he could enter the house.

Inside, he found nothing.

Nothing but the bad and familiar stench of a dried-up blood.

On the flip side, he saw no bodies that the blood originated from, yet he shuddered as if he walked in on a bizarre scene straight out of a horror movie.

Slowly, he backed away, all the way outside, until he bumped into something.

With a sense of dread, he heard a voice.

"Oh, what do we have here? Somebody was curious, huh?" He spun around to come face to face with a group of violently looking thugs, grinning at him widely.

"Who are you?" Ichigo instantly asked, in his mind counting the number of people in front of him.

The person nearest to him licked his teeth.

"None of your business, brat. But if you insist, you can call me your Master." He laughed roughly along with his comrades, who slowly took small knives out of their pockets.

'Where the hell am I?' Ichigo cursed and tried to find a way out of this dangerous-looking situation.

"Wait! I don't know what you want, but I have nothing on me. I just woke up and I don't even know where I am." He tried to stall the moment, acting as a clueless guy.

However, his face morphed into a frown when the crowd just loudly laughed.

"Heh, that's rich. Well, consider this a wakeup call, brat and welcome to the Afterlife." The man stated with a malicious grin and swung down his fist at Ichigo, who only thanks to his many encounters in the World of the Living could dodge and roll away.

 _'Afterlife? What? I'm dead?!'_ A myriad of questions flew right through Ichigo's mind but he filed them for later. He knew he had to give the man his full concentration, or he would end up as dead meat in no time.

Ichigo was no pushover and could hold his own against few of the wanna-be delinquents of his own age, but this was a group of adults armed with knives.

 _'Shit.'_ Despite his hazy memories he understood he had close to no chance, so he tried to stall again.

"You didn't answer. What do you want from me?" Ichigo added a hint of desperation to his voice, which wasn't that hard, considering the situation he found himself in.

The man raised his eyebrow and looked at his fist.

"Well, I'll be damned. It's been a long time since anyone avoided my surprise Iron Fist. As a gift, I'll answer your question, brat. Nothing."

Ichigo stared at him, confused by the man's words.

"Nothing? What do you mean nothing?"

He backed away when the man approached him.

"We want nothing from you. However, you are an above average looking guy, so our boss would like your body... I guess it's your bad luck, huh?" Ichigo froze at those words and gulped. He didn't like what he heard. Those thugs looked normal if only deranged so he considered himself lucky that they weren't gay.

Their boss was however another thing. Ichigo didn't know a thing about him but he already felt ill. If what the man said was true, their boss sounded like a child molester.

He hated child molesters.

Clenching his fists, he concluded that he didn't want to end up as the victims in reports he somehow knew he read while he was alive. Why he read something like that was a mystery to him, but he couldn't dwell on it for long as the man came at him for the second time, swinging his fist again.

In a retaliation, Ichigo steeled himself and side-stepped the man in the last second and kicked his legs from under him, sending the man rolling and crashing into the hut behind them.

He took a calming breath and looked around.

Seeing the rest of the thugs shaking their heads immediately told him one thing.

He should not have done that.

He definitely should not have done that.

...

_An hour later_

Bloodied body of the orange-haired boy was limply lying on the ground. The boy was unconscious, which was most likely a gift.

If he wasn't, he would be in a hell of a pain; his recent battle had been brutal.

They had beaten him up with so much force that bruises already formed on his skin. Various cuts all over his body created gaps in his clothing. They were no longer bleeding, but the blood was still present on him and the clothes.

"Heh, kid gave put up quite a fight, don't you think, Tetsu?" A buff looking man asked the one that was standing above the beaten boy. There was a bruise in form of a monocle on his face, his lip bled and his shirt was no longer in one piece.

The most surprising fact was that the man called Tetsu didn't look angry. Instead, a bit out of breath, he grinned and put his short knife back into his pocket.

"Yeah. It's almost a shame we have to give him to the Boss. He would make a good training dummy." He wiped the sweat from his brow and crouched down to pick up the limp body.

"Oi, Tetsu, we should get going. I can feel a Shinigami closing on us." Somebody called out to him.

Testu clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.

"Those damn patrols are messing with our business. I should mention it to the Boss." Sighing, he tied Ichigo in a way which made it impossible to escape and slung him on his shoulder.

Mindful of a potential Shinigami patrol, the group covered a long distance until they arrived to a huge house.

It looked simple from the architectural side. No unnecessary decoration, no expensive looking accessories, no nothing. Aside from being huge, the building wasn't that much different from other houses in the area they were in.

This part of the Afterlife wasn't as populated as others, so until not so long ago, the group had free access to all kinds of potential 'toys' for the Boss. It was only recently that the Shinigami stationed patrols around this area.

 _'They probably caught up with the fact that too many souls were getting missing too often. This wouldn't happen if boss kept his toys for a bit longer and not just a day or two. But from what I heard, they can barely endure his 'plays' so it's not that surprising... ah, this job is sometimes hard.'_ He sighed and walked past the gate and inside the building.

…

_Sometime later_

Ichigo awoke for the second time that day with a throbbing headache. This time, however, he could not see the sky, nor he could listen to the breeze passing through the trees.

Instead, he was in some dark place.

He tried to move, but his body protested and a sharp pain shot through him.

"Don't move. They did quite a job on you. You must have fought back as I spotted some injuries on that ... monster." He heard a soft, yet angry voice coming from across the room he was in.

"I did my best and tried to take care of your wounds with the stuff they gave me but it's only so-so. I'm not a medic..." The voice seemed displeased and Ichigo sighed.

The myriad of questions that had been swirling in his head the whole day multiplied, and he his headache worsened.

"Thanks, I guess." Ichigo thanked the voice.

"Don't thank me. If they took you here with the same purpose as those I saw before, you'll wish you died in your fight."

Ignoring the pain, Ichigo shifted into sitting position and as his eyes became little accustomed to the darkness, he noticed he was in some kind of cell, with two old looking beds, one which he occupied and the second across the room and presumably where the second voice lived.

"Still, thanks." Ichigo repeated and caught the voice sigh.

"Sure, no problem."

Ichigo massaged his left wrist, jerking when he felt the dull pain in it and frowned.

"So... where are we? I'm guessing you've been here for a while."

For a moment, he heard and saw nothing, but after waiting a while longer, he sensed a rustling of clothes.

"I've been here for about a week, but I still have barely any idea what this place is. But I'm certain this is a residence of some 'Boss' person those thugs that delivered you here hold in a high regard. The second thing I know is that this 'Boss' likes young boys, and he uses them for God knows what. Scratch that, there is no God in this place..." The voice trailed off and Ichigo could almost picture the clenching of his fists.

"I'm not sure what that 'Boss' does to them, but when they carry their lifeless bodies, all I can see are countless injuries and a devastated look in their eyes. As if something crushed their very essence, their souls. If I'm right, something similar awaits you too in a few days’ time." The person probably didn't want to sound cruel, but despite that, Ichigo felt sick again.

"Can... can't we escape from this place?"

He heard a sad chuckle.

"Impossible. Remember the group of thugs? This 'Boss' person has twice the amount of guards and servants. Not to mention that the rumor is, he possesses spiritual power, so the only way you could escape from this place is if you were a Shinigami."

Aside from the words, Ichigo caught the tone of somebody who had already submitted to his fate and he clenched his own fists and slammed them on the wall he was leaning on.

"Damn!"

After a moment of silence, he heard the other voice again.

"What is your name, anyway?"

Ichigo raised his head and stared at the place where he could somewhat spot the silhouette of a person.

"Isn't it polite to say your name first before asking for mine?" A chuckle followed his words.

"In this hole there is no place for politeness."

"That we can create it."

After another moment of silence, the other voice called out to him again.

"I'm Kazumi."

Despite the situation, Ichigo formed a small smile.

"Nice to meet you, Kazumi. I'm Ichigo."

The person across the room, Kazumi, opened his mouth to say something, when they both heard a creaking noise, alerting them that someone was coming.

Not wanting to abandon his somewhat comfortable bed, Ichigo shifted himself, so he could see the hallway as the light from the opened doors lit the dungeon their cell was in.

He heard steps, and he glanced at Kazumi, who was sighing.

"They are most likely carrying another one that broke." Kazumi said and Ichigo steeled himself.

It couldn't be that bad, could it?

In the next few moments, he learned just how broken a person could look.

When his eyes caught the sight of the body a duo of men was carrying across the hallway, he widened his eyes and strength abandoned his limbs and only with luck he didn't slide down on his bed.

That thing those men had in their hands didn't look like a human being anymore.

The body wasn't smashed beyond recognition.

It wasn't bloody.

It barely had any injuries at all.

What it lacked was his expression or any sign of being alive. The two eyes that were staring at the ground looked so distant that the person was most likely so deep in his mind, nothing could ever bring him back.

His face was expressionless, yet despite that one could see the frozen horror on it, the humiliation embedded deep within after surviving something he would tell no one about.

It looked so bizarre, so unreal that Ichigo almost wanted to look away, but he couldn't.

He felt like he was looking at the empty shell that housed nobody within.

Truly, it was a broken being with crushed soul.

It shook Ichigo with great force and he could almost sense the sympathetic look on Kazumi's face.

"This... this is Afterlife? Isn't it supposed to be great?" Ichigo asked the silence.

"But it is great, don't you see? A heavenly hell."

End of Prologue.

 

 


	2. House of the Pleasure (House of the Dead)

**Chapter 1 – House of the Pleasure (House of the Dead)**

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

**xxx**

"How are you doing, Isshin?"

The man in question turned his head to the right, both of his hands sliding of his face, showing the devastated look in his eyes.

Isshin Kurosaki was fairly known for his slightly crazy antics around his children, always trying to cheer them up, not wanting to see them cry. But there was nobody, that could cheer him up at the moment. Thanks to his children, he had managed to get over the death of his wife six years ago quite quickly. But now, even his children were gone. They were gone from his life and the small group of people sitting around him saw that it added a few years to his appearance.

"What do you think, Kisuke? I failed Masaki... I failed to protect them." He grimaced and tried to hold his tears in.

Urahara Kisuke glanced at his shop assistant, Tessai who only shook his head. Both of them knew just how much his kids meant to the man. They both knew that there was nothing that they could say nor do, that could make him feel better.

In a rare showcase of emotion, Urahara gripped Isshin shoulder and forced him to raise his head that was once again in his hands.

"Isshin... I..." He wanted to say that he was sorry. He felt compelled to do it. After all, he took it on himself to look after Isshin's son in case his unusual spiritual energy would create some accident.

Never in million years he thought that Ichigo would get killed. From the many years he watched him, Urahara knew just how strong-willed Ichigo was. He was so sure that no matter what could life throw at the kid, he would just get back up. Now, he was sitting next to a mourning father, not knowing what to do, despite being a scientific genius.

While a myriad of thoughts flashed through Urahara's mind, Tessai, who sat behind both of them, coughed lightly, forcing them to look at him.

"If I may, Isshin-san. You know that I'm a man who can't talk around in circles, so I'll be straight with you and say what you need to hear. All of us know that what happened was out of your control. You couldn't have done anything to change it."

Isshin gulped and the two of them saw one lonely tear escape from his eye.

"I know... I know that... but it hurts. Even more so than with Masaki... how can I face her again? I allowed my children to get hurt... to get killed." He whispered and angrily wiped the tear with his sleeve.

Tessai turned to Urahara in surprise, but the man quietly shook his head.

_'I couldn't have possibly told Isshin that his daughters got eaten. Even if Kuchiki-san along with young Kurosaki-san's help managed to purify the hollow, thus sending their souls into the reincarnation cycle, just knowing that they had to go through that kind of ordeal would simply break his heart even further. No... I had to lie and tell him that they simply died quickly and painlessly. At least now that he's in shock, he can't even tell the difference between their real bodies and the artificial ones I created for him to bury instead. Maybe deep inside he knows the truth... but it is better like this. I just can't tell him the truth.'_  Urahara thought grimly.

He was a scientist, who came across many things of all kinds. Until this day, he crafted quite the number of lifeless artificial bodies for the purpose of being a Gigai for shinigami. Yet while he was creating the bodies of his friend's daughters, by the time he was finished, his shirt was wet from his tears.

"Masaki-san was an amazing person. I'm sure that she'd understand it." Tessai firmly reassured Isshin.

Urahara finally found his voice.

"... no matter what, we are here if you need anything Isshin. And do not worry about your son. If anyone could survive on his own in the Soul Society, it's him."

At the mention of his son, Isshin cringed and looked at the ceiling.

"Yeah... Ichigo is a lot stronger person than I ever was... I just hope that one day he'll forgive me for what he'll have to go through." He stated.

Behind him, Urahara glanced at Tessai and almost inaudibly whispered to him.

"Contact Yoruichi-san. There is something I need her to do for me..."

_Soul Society_

Ichigo tossed around in his sleep, a nightmare filled with blood and screaming that echoed in his mind, slowly torturing his soul. With a start, he awoke and instantly sat on his bad, trying to catch his breath. Feeling his shirt wet from the sweat, he glanced at his left hand that was still shaking. He gripped it with his other hand and waited, until he managed to get his breathing under control.

"Bad dream?" The voice of his cellmate reached his ears, just as he felt his hand stop trembling.

Sighing deeply, he lied back down, trying to ignore his sweaty back.

"Yeah... " He replied after a moment.

Trying to remember what his dream was about, he clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction when he couldn't. Only thing he remembered was a feeling of despair. That fact alone promptly stopped him from trying to recall the dream further.

"What time it is?" Ichigo asked his companion.

As the room was barely illuminated, he couldn't see Kazumi's face, but hearing the somber laughter, he was sure he could picture his expression.

"Sure, just let me look at my watch. "

Ichigo sighed again. From the short time he was in this cell with Kazumi, he learned a few things.

Most of them were about the place he was in and about the people in it and what was going on in here. However, from their short conversations, he discovered that Kazumi was a cynical person. Sarcastic and with a cruel sense of humor, but buried underneath all of the atrocious events that happened to him, Kazumi had a softer and a caring side to him.

Although he rarely showed it.

In fact, the only time Ichigo noticed it, was when Kazumi asked him about how were his injuries. Ichigo was still grateful to him for treating him after the group of thugs that he met, dumped him here. Even if he was still feeling a bit sore, he could move almost without any restrictions. Which was surprising, considering it had been most likely just a day since the beating.

When he voiced his surprise, Kazumi explained to him that souls were generally more durable than average human bodies. As they had nothing better to do than just to talk, Kazumi also explained to him the concept of spiritual energy and how things worked in the afterlife. During those explanations, Ichigo vaguely recalled hearing about it before, but he just couldn't place the memory.

That was another thing that was confusing him. It appeared that he was suffering from some kind of memory loss. He knew who he was. He remembered all the information he had learned in school. He could even recall the place he had used to live in when he had been still alive. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recall any face, nor any names from his life.

"It's not that unusual. From what I heard, those who die in a particularly nasty way lose their memories of people they used to know. It’s probably so that they won’t suffer in the afterlife. That's what most likely happened to you." Kazumi told him when Ichigo asked him about it.

After hearing this kind of reply, Ichigo was torn between wanting to know more about his life and forgetting about it. What kind of sane person would want his memories back, if they would create only more suffering for him?

Hardly anyone.

Ichigo had been dead for only a short while, but the happenings that took place until now were threatening to shake his very sanity. Being in this dark cell, with minimum amount of any form of illumination, where one could barely see his hands, where you could hear your own breath was psychologically hard on the teen. Only time he could see the light was when guards carried the used victim through the hallway and they had to open the doors leading to it.

At that moment, Ichigo heard the distinct creaking of the door hinges and had to blink when his eyes registered the light coming from them. He sat on his bed, let his feet touch the cold ground and waited for the sound of footsteps coming in the direction of his cell. Even with that small amount of light, he wasn't able to see the faces of the guards, that were slowly approaching. It didn't really matter. He wasn't trying to look at them as he was sure that they were carrying another broken soul, getting ready to get rid of it. Ichigo suspected that they were doing it on purpose... the carrying of the poor souls that had been broken by the 'Boss'. In fact, he was almost sure that this was some kind of sick game of that 'Boss'. To break his will with the sight of what was awaiting him. The teen tried not to think about it. He had to focus on his plan of escaping from this place. Kazumi told him that it was impossible. On the other hand, his cellmate clearly never tried to escape himself.

When the footsteps passed and the doors closed, Ichigo closed his eyes for a moment.

"How long have you been here, Kazumi?"

The sudden question was met with a short silence.

"You do realize you already asked me this question?"

"Um, sorry, I forgot."

Kazumi sighed and shook his head.

"It's fine. As I told you before, it's hard to say with this eternal darkness. You lose your sense of time rather quickly in here... but I figure that I may have been here a little bit more than a week."

Ichigo raised his head and stared at the place where he thought Kazumi was.

"More than a week and you still haven't been taken to the 'Boss'?" Ichigo asked.

"Gee, thanks for bringing that up. Really nice of you."

Ichigo cringed a little at the tone of Kazumi's reply.

"Sorry," he quickly apologized. “It’s just... you know..."

Kazumi chuckled quietly.

"Odd? Yeah, you're right. When I got here, after maybe a day, I was told that my appearance does not match the 'Boss's' tastes so for now, they are keeping me here. I don't know what 's going to happen to me in the future though." Kazumi stated and went silent after that.

Ichigo sighed a little and scratched his itchy nose.

_'This makes little sense...'_

Having nothing else to do, he lied down and tried to sleep a bit more, as he was feeling a bit tired.

...

"You know, I was just thinking that we were going to die from dehydration." Ichigo said, gulping down the water from the small mug that the guards brought them few minutes ago.

Kazumi, who drank just enough to keep himself from drying out, wiped his mouth and put his own mug on the floor.

"Yeah, I forgot to tell you that every two days they bring some water to keep us alive. Last time was just few hours before you arrived, so I guess we have our timeline."

Ichigo leaned on the wall and massaged his throat, feeling a bit more alive.

"Do they bring some food too?" He asked and almost felt the stare coming from Kazumi.

"No? I mean, we, normal souls do not get hungry, unless we use our spiritual energy. Which we clearly don't possess. I mean, most of the souls that do end up as a shinigami."

Ichigo raised his eyebrow and when his stomach growled a little, he heard Kazumi's sharp intake of breath.

"Y-you are hungry? But... how?"

The teenager scratched his head a little.

"Eh, I don't know?"

Hearing some noise, Ichigo glanced at Kazumi's side of the cell.

"That's great! It means that you do possess some spiritual energy and it also means that there is a small chance of escape!"

"Didn't you say that escaping is impossible?" Ichigo retorted and felt his lips forming a small hopeful smile.

Unbeknown to him, Kazumi just waved his hand.

"It is impossible for the normal soul, but if you could use your spiritual energy then the table could turn in our favor." The sudden elation in Kazumi's voice widened Ichigo's tiny smile and made him grin.

"So, we just have to find some food." He declared confidently and after two days, he finally felt something else than anguish.

_World of the Living_

"Yoruichi-san! Taka-i!"

"What is the boss doing?" A boy with a broom in his hands sweatdropped as he watched Urahara Kisuke grab a black cat and raise it high in the air.

"That's Yoruichi-san, his longtime friend, Jinta." The said boy jumped in the air when all of a sudden Tessai appeared behind him.

While he was trying to calm down his nerves, a girl of a same age with black hair branded into two braids tilted her head.

"Having a cat for a friend... isn't that a bit... pathetic?" She asked in a shy voice.

"It's just how he is." Tessai answered and ushered the duo to continue cleaning the porch.

When Urahara along with the black cat went inside the shop, Tessai followed him and the three of them sat around a small table at the center of the room.

"Cut the crap, Kisuke. What's going on? I thought that by this time, the kid should have been training with you but I can't sense him anywhere." The black cat raised the question in a male voice.

Urahara's hand shot to his head and he took off his hat, dusting him in the process.

"Something happened. Something, that I didn't deem possible to happen." He stated.

The cat just swung its tail, waiting for detailed explanation.

"Kid got himself killed by a hollow."

"What?!"

Tessai quickly poured a small amount of milk in the glass in front of the Yoruichi as if trying to calm him down. Yoruichi ignored it and glared at Urahara.

"You said that you had everything under control Kisuke!" The cat growled and prepared to jump and the man's face.

"Yeah... I thought so too..." Seeing the crestfallen expression on the shopkeeper's face, Yoruichi retracted his claws.

Urahara glanced at Yoruichi with a sad expression.

"You should have seen Isshin... he's having a bad time... even his daughters died in the attack."

The cat seemed to cringe a little and after a slight hesitation, it dipped its tongue in the milk.

"So, what now? We have to come up with another strategy-" Yoruichi was interrupted when Urahara shook his head.

"Not necessarily. In fact, we can still use the same strategy, we just need to hurry." He said.

Tessai cleared his throat.

"That's why I contacted you, Yoruichi-san. Kisuke wants you to do something for him." The shop-assistant nodded to Yoruichi.

"I see. You want me to go to Soul Society and find the kid?" Yoruichi asked.

"Not quite. I want you to go to Soul Society, but I want you to find Kuchiki Rukia. She's the one who was supposed to awaken young Kurosaki-san's power and she's the only one who felt his reiatsu enough to remember it. If you were to go alone, you wouldn't be able to find him in time. Kuchiki-san can speed up to process." Urahara stated.

"How? In fact, why would she even help us?" Yoruichi stared at him unconvinced.

Urahara took a sip from his cup.

"It's quite simple. As you know, Kuchiki-san has been haunted by her inability to save her late Vice-Captain and now she hasn't been able to save young Kurosaki-san, who 'happens' to look just like him. I'm certain that her guilt must be torturing her so if you present her with a way to save him, she'll jump at the offer instantly."

"Manipulative bastard." Yoruichi sighed in distaste, but she knew that this side of him managed to save many lives in the past.

"Moreover, thanks to her remembering the feel of young Kurosaki-san reiatsu, she can serve as a receiver for when he'll use it." Urahara continued, ignoring Yoruichi's jab at his persona.

"You think it'll be that easy? What if he won't use his reiatsu?"

Urahara chuckled but the laughter didn't reach his eyes.

"Oh, I'm sure of it. He most likely lost his memories of his previous life, but they can be awakened with a proper impulse. When that happens, his reiatsu will raise itself enough to be felt from quite the distance. After that, I'm kind of sure that he'll end up as he was while being alive. That means that his spiritual energy will pour of him constantly, making him easy to find."

Yoruichi listened to him and shook her head.

"You sound too confident, Kisuke. Do not forget that you already made one mistake concerning Kurosaki Ichigo. Don't make another."

_Soul Society_

"Wake up, brat!"

Ichigo jerked up when a cold water was poured on his head, pulling him from his uneasy sleep.

"Wha?" He asked, disoriented from the sudden awakening.

"It's your time." Deep voice entered his eardrums, making him feel dread in his spine.

When all of his senses started to function properly, Ichigo realized that he was being held by his shoulders by two guards, while another three surrounded him.

"What's going on?" Ichigo asked, despite being sure of the answer.

One of the guards yanked him from the bed and Ichigo painfully landed on his knees.

"Boss is waiting for you." Same guard whispered enthusiastically into his ear and Ichigo felt his heart pump like crazy, adrenaline rushing into his veins.

_'No! It's too soon!'_  He thought and frantically tried to rip himself from the guards.

"Don't fret, brat!"

In the panic that suddenly enveloped Ichigo, he ignored the command and elbowed the nearest guard into the gut, making him clutch his stomach. Dodging a swipe at his head, Ichigo stood up and tried to dash out of the cell, only to receive a painful punch to the back of his head making him collapse on the ground in a heap. Just as he felt his consciousness fade away, he heard that overly-joyful guard chuckling at the one who received Ichigo's elbow.

"Oh, this one's quite lively. I think I'll enjoy watching him break."

...

"Rise and shine, baby." A foreign voice called out to Ichigo, trying to wake him up.

With a dreadful feeling in his gut, Ichigo forced himself to turn his brain on. In that instant, he was attacked by a variety of sounds, odors, scents, screams and moans. Just that was enough for him wanting to be sent back to unconsciousness and he tried to fake being asleep. His eyes, however opened when he felt a hand on his torso.

His bare torso.

_'Where... where are my clothes?'_  He thought in a panic.

When his brain finally registered what his eyes were seeing, he was left dumbfounded.

He was in a spacious room, the ceiling high above him, covered with ornamental mosaic with a sadistically grinning woman sitting on top of him.

"Welcome to my humble abode, enjoy your stay." The woman leaned on him and menacingly whispered into his ear.

The first thing Ichigo noticed, was that the woman was completely naked. That alone was enough for him to be left speechless and he couldn't even hear what she said to him properly. He tried to move, but his hands didn't budge.

Glancing at them, he noticed a thick chain attached to the shackles on his wrists and connected to a massive pillar. Same thing has been done to his ankles, with the difference that his legs were spread a little bit.

He was completely nude, his clothes nowhere in sight. The woman noticed his shocked expression.

"I had you bathed. You reeked of sweat and blood and I can't have my precious toy smelling bad. You are only allowed to smell of despair and defilement." She licked her lips with a hungry expression.

Ichigo wanted to back away from her.

_'T-this woman... she's crazy!'_  He screamed in his head and tried to move, but he was being held tightly with her thighs and with the chains.

He looked around, trying to find a way to cut himself loose. He shouldn't have done that. As his eyes fell on the many kids around them, lying on the many beds, couches and stairs covered with carpet, he felt sick. All of them had some kind of shackles on them, preventing them from running away. Worst part was that the majority of them were girls, most of them a lot younger than Ichigo himself. Seeing their terrified faces, he yanked his own chains, desperately trying to get free as a stray memory flashed through his mind, making him jerk from the pain.

_'What... what was that?'_

"You like my playthings?" He heard the sickly-sweet voice above his head and watched in disgust as the woman sitting on him dropped her head and licked him all the way from his neck to his ear. He shivered from the weird feeling on his skin.

"Good. You are lively, just as I was told. It's no fun when they just lie on their back and take it quietly."

"Who are you! What do you want?!" Ichigo couldn't contain himself and yelled at the woman, who's smile only widened further.

"You can call me Mistress, or Boss if you want."

_'This is the Boss those thugs were talking about? He's a she?'_  At that moment Ichigo realized that it made no difference if the child molester was a man or a woman.

The person in front of him wasn't normal either way. She made his stomach turn and he had to stop himself from vomiting, when he realized what she must have done to those poor girls that surrounded them.

"You bitch..." Ichigo growled and yanked at the chain on his hands as hard as he could and felt his muscles strain, but he couldn't budge the restrains no matter how much he tried to.

In that moment the Mistress swung down her hand and slapped his cheek, hard, making his head sharply turn to the right.

"That's it... call me more." She licked his red cheek prompting another reaction from Ichigo who managed to recover from the unexpected slap.

"I'll kill you, you bitch." He said quietly, putting all of his burning anger into his glare and watched as she flushed and her breathing got heavier.

"Yes, that's the right glare..." She moaned, and Ichigo could almost sense the girls around them back away from her.

He received another punch to his other cheek and the Mistress grabbed his head and shove her tongue inside of his mouth. That surprised him and he couldn't even fight back, instead he felt her tongue roughly moving in his mouth. When he recovered he caught it with his teeth and bit down on it. Taste of blood filled his mouth and the Mistress managed to yank her tongue from his mouth before he could bite her more.

"You're really good." She grinned dangerously and without warning punched Ichigo in the gut, leaving him out of breath.

_'Gah... this isn't a strength of a woman, damn...'_ He thought in pain and fought the urge to clutch his abdomen.

He closed his eyes for a moment, but when he felt her weight shifting on top of him, he quickly opened them. Slightly raising his head, as much as the restraints allowed him to, he glanced at her to see her slowly moving down his legs, exposing more of him than he was comfortable with.

"What are you doing?" He asked worriedly.

He wasn't sure what she wanted to do next, but he was sure it wouldn't be anything good. She showed him her teeth.

"I think that it was enough foreplay, it's time for the main event."

Before Ichigo could react, he felt her mouth cover his penis and he almost jerked away, but she held him in place with surprising amount of strength.

"Mmm, not bad..." She sucked on him hard and gripped his abdomen with her fingers.

Ichigo, meanwhile, was at a loss of words. He was completely shocked. He never thought that she would do that. Ichigo was a teenager and as most of the boys in that age, he sometimes thought of sex but he didn't think that it would happen that to him so soon.

He was looking forward for that moment. Now, the only thing he felt wasn't pleasure. It wasn't a satisfaction, nor it was a bliss.

It was humiliation.

Humiliation from the fact that this woman was doing with him what she wanted, without giving him any option. The fact, that he was tied up and the fact that this woman was a sadistic psychopath who casually raped young girls.

_'...kids.'_  Ichigo corrected himself in his mind and desperately tried to shook her off from him.

He screamed in pain when she bit him and he felt her teeth sinking into his flesh.

"Now, now. Be still or accidents may occur."

The was she said the word accidents made Ichigo gulp and with closed eyes he stopped moving and waited until she was finished, praying for it to be soon. After a few more minutes, she finally stopped sucking and raised her head a little.

"Hmm... so you're fighting it? Guess I have to use it." She mumbled for herself and Ichigo opened his eyes wide when he felt something entering a place that nothing should ever go to. Applying a slight pressure, the Mistress wiggled her finger and pushed against a certain spot. Ichigo bit on his lip and despite him trying to stop what was happening, he felt himself become hard. The Mistress whistled a little in acknowledgment and started to suck again. This time it went for only a minute, after which she moved up on him and positioned her hips above his crotch.

"This'll be good." She stated and let herself fall on him and Ichigo could feel that he penetrated something wet and squishy.

As the Mistress moaned and started to ride him, he couldn't stop a single tear to flow out of his eyes.

_'This bitch... I'll kill her!'_ He angrily thought in his mind, the humiliation reaching another level.

...

"You really think that we can find him this way?" Rukia asked the small black cat running and jumping in front of her.

"If Kisuke says we can, then we can." Yoruichi shortly replied and kept speeding forward.

Just as Urahara predicted, when Yoruichi found Rukia and explained the situation to her, the depressed shinigami perked up and briskly agreed to help. So, there they were, running through the Seireitei, towards the Northern gate, so that they could travel outside, to the Rukongai Districts, where Ichigo should have arrived.

"Okay." Rukia said and followed the black cat without any further questions.

_'I swear that I'll find you and I'll undo my mistake.'_  She thought and two, almost identical faces, flashed through her mind.

...

"Oh yes! Yes! Yes! YES!"

Ichigo was still keeping his eyes closed and tried to focus on anything else, but the constant moans of the woman riding him were braking his concentration and he felt that despite everything, he was coming close to a climax. He was, after all a virgin and even with all the humiliation he felt, his body was reacting to the sensation of rubbing a woman's inner walls. Even when it looked like the situation would made him soft, the woman on top of him just used her fingers to massage his prostate from within. However, it looked that the Mistress would finish sooner than him and he prayed for it to happen so that it would be over.

"AAAH!"

With a yell, the Mistress climaxed and Ichigo felt her tighten.

Too much for him to handle.

_'NO! Shit...'_  He cursed in his mind when he felt himself releasing his seed inside of her and another tear escaped his eye.

"Haa... that was amazing." The Mistress sighed in content and brought her face close to Ichigo's who could feel her breath on his skin.

"You were cute, trying to hold off so that we would finish together."

His eyes opened and he glared fiercely at her.

"Like hell I was doing that, bitch! I swear, get these chains off of me and I'll kill you!" He yelled, pulling on his chains with all his might.

He didn't even realize it, but they moved. It was only for a width of a human hair, but they moved. The Mistress grinned at him.

"Say what you want but your body responded to the pleasure I was giving you."

Ichigo wanted to spit on her, but he felt alarms going off in his head. Despite everything that happened so far, he was afraid for what more was coming his way as he was sure that this was not over. Even after feeling that kind of humiliation, he knew that this much wasn't enough for a person to break so much as those souls that he saw being carried were.

His fears were justified as the Mistress slowly stood up and walked to a table full of different kinds of fruit, appetizers and refreshing beverages, taking a straw of grape and pushing one of it into her mouth while her slaves moved out of her way with frightened expressions. That alone was normal, but next she grabbed a small, black and quite dangerously looking pill and grinned insanely. She licked her lips and almost jumped back to Ichigo, her apparent excitement flowing into her whole body.

Ichigo watched as she brought the pill next to his mouth and heard her whispering.

"Now, this will get fun."

Quickly turning his head to the side, so that she couldn't push the pill into his mouth, Ichigo tried to sound brave in his question.

"What is that?"

The Mistress's grin widened, almost splitting her face with the insanity written all over it and sat on Ichigo's abdomen. She pointed to the black pill and laughed maniacally.

"This... is something I got from my very good friends who wear black clothes every day. This little ball of chemicals will cause an implosion followed by a violent explosion within your soul, calling upon the very essence of it and squeezing all of your spiritual energy in your whole body into one extreme moment."

Ichigo blinked.

"I see you don't understand. You see, by giving you this pill, for a moment, all of your spiritual energy will be at the highest possible... no, higher than the highest possible state, making you go crazy from the overflow. In most cases, this will cause your soul to get crushed by its own power, to get burned up from it, but think of the pure bliss you'll feel for those short moments. Mhhh. I'm getting wet just from thinking about it." The Mistress closed her eyes, bit her lip and tried to cool herself with a wet towel as she was getting flushed and her breathing got heavier.

In the next instant, Ichigo understood and put all of his strength into his limbs and struggled as much as he could.

"Oh, that's a nice reaction." The mistress laughed as she hopped up and down on Ichigo, enjoying his pointless struggle.

"Yes, very, very nice." She whispered and using her both hands, she grabbed Ichigo's head and held it in one place so that she could push the pill in his mouth.

_'No!'_

_..._

_Different location_

Yoruichi eagerly looked at Rukia, who suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned her head to the south.

"What is it?"

Rukia turned back and stared at Yoruichi.

"I... I think I can feel his reiatsu."

"Well, that's good, right?" Yoruichi asked nervously, wanting to move again.

Rukia shook her head.

"No, it's not. Something's not right. I can feel it rise rapidly... and not in the good way. I... I can't place my thoughts but something bad is going on." She stated, her face showing the sings of worry.

Yoruichi cursed under her breath.

"In that case, we need to hurry even more."

...

_With Ichigo_

"Aaaargh!"

"Yes. YES! Show me more!"

Mistress's excited yelling was getting mixed with Ichigo's painful screams as she managed to force him to swallow the black pill.

_'It burns! It hurts so much!'_  Ichigo's mind was getting hazy from the pain that was emanating from his very core.

His whole body felt as if a fire was eating him from within. Like a fire-breathing beast ravaging inside of him, just waiting to be released. Seeing his pain, the Mistress flushed more, a sweat showed itself on her skin, making her glitter in the light. As she felt Ichigo's reiatsu steadily rise, she jumped from him and walked towards the group of girls, that were shivering in the corner of the room, where Ichigo's screams scared them to. Giving them a quick look, she hastily grabbed the arm of one of them and pulled her to the bed. Only because of the chains the girl was wearing, Ichigo managed to sense her despite his pain.

When one of his spasms ended and left him heavily breathing on the bed, with horrified eyes he watched as the Mistress forced the girl to climb on the bed and place herself above Ichigo's groin. He could see the girls terrified face. She was openly crying and tried to get away, however, the Mistress held her firmly in the place. As the Mistress slowly pushed on the girl's shoulder, forcing her to slowly near Ichigo's member, Ichigo started to struggle again.

"Please...no..." He heard the girl's whimper and, in that moment, something inside of him snapped.

As he glanced at the girl's face and saw her crying face... a crying face of a barely twelve years old girl, a similar face flashed through his mind. In a short moment of nothingness, a simple sentence showed itself in Ichigo's mind.

_'She looks just like Yuzu.'_

With that, his soul responded to his anger and his reiatsu exploded, sending the girl and the Mistress flying to the other side of the room.

"AAAH!" Feeling incredible power flowing in him, with one sharp movement, Ichigo broke the chains on his wrists, on his ankles and jumped from the bed.

"Wha-what is this?" The Mistress for the first time looked afraid and she hide behind the girl, that she just few seconds ago, tried to force on Ichigo.

Beads of sweat formed on her, the girl's and everybody else's foreheads when the full power of Ichigo's reiatsu hit them. The girls fainted soon enough, leaving only two people conscious on the room.

The Mistress, who was positively getting more and more afraid.

Ichigo, who was glaring daggers.

In next moment, a surge of reiatsu emerged from Ichigo, forcing him to bend and kneel from the agony he suddenly felt. This gave the Mistress enough time to somewhat get over her shock and she shakily stood up.

"To think that they delivered me somebody like this... I think I'll keep you. Guards!" She yelled and a dozen man clad in light armor and armed with short knives entered the room.

After one look at the scene they understood the situation and formed a circle around Ichigo, who meanwhile managed to get back up.

"Don't fret now, brat." A disgustingly familiar voice called to Ichigo and the teen glanced at his right, at the guard that he remembered talking too joyful when they were taking Ichigo to the Mistress.

Gritting his teeth, Ichigo clenched his fists. He stared at the guard.

"You... are going down first." Ichigo whispered as the guards laughed.

"You're a funny o-gah!" The guard was blown away and crashed into the wall, cracking it. When the blood started to flow from his body, he fell on the ground, dead.

The sudden silence that filled the room was deafening.

"Eh?" The Mistress turned her head to see the crumbled guard and looked back to Ichigo, who stood in that guard’s previous post, with his fist stretched out.

"One down... more to go." Ichigo growled and his reiatsu flared again, sending the guards and the Mistress on their knees.

Even if they possessed a small bit of spiritual energy, it was dwarfed Ichigo's presence and made them feel like a group of ants kneeling in front of a giant. With a roar, Ichigo moved to the nearest guard and swung down his fist, sending the man into sweet unconsciousness. Moving quickly, it took him barely a minute to dispose of all of the guards, holding back just enough not to kill them but enough to cripple them.

The Mistress watched the whole scene unfold with slowly widening eyes.

When it was over and Ichigo stood above the broken bodies of her guards, his fists smeared with blood, she fell on her ass and tried to crawl back, away from him

"What...what are you?" Her voice failing from fear, she asked.

Ichigo turned around and slowly approached her his reiatsu still rising. As his hand moved closer to her, the Mistress yelped and turned her head away. Ignoring her attempts to get away, Ichigo grabbed her by the neck and forcible stood her up.

"What... do... you... want... I'll give you... money... lots of it..." She barely managed to ask through Ichigo's hand gripping her throat, slowly suffocating her.

Ichigo's eyes shined brightly with reiatsu and he put all of humiliation and rage into his words, while remembering the similar scene with him and the thugs.

"I want nothing from you, just die." He stated and swung down his other hand, punching her in the middle of the chest, sending a powerful shockwave through her heart and body, killing her instantly. Giving her one more look of disgust, he threw her limp body behind him, next to the guards and looked around. He stripped down one of the guards and put on his clothes on. It wasn't a perfect fit, but it had to work for now.

As he gulped down the contents of a nearby glass, he clutched his chest, feeling a sharp pain near his heart and felt the power slowly disappear from him. Breathing heavily, he wiped the sweat from his brow and forced himself to stand straight. Ignoring the pain and the urge to vomit from his actions, from killing two human beings, he gripped the table next to him.

_'...they weren't human...'_  He tried to convince himself.

Sensing a movement, he turned around to see the group of girls stirring and slowly waking up. The first thing he wanted to do, was to immediately comfort them. It was the remnants of his brother instinct.

However, as the girls slowly raised their heads to see the scene in front of them with dead or unconscious bodies lying all around and Ichigo, all bloody from the fight, he realized that he must have looked quite scary to them.

It proved to be true, when the girls whimpered and hugged each other, the older ones trying to console the younger ones. That's why Ichigo just called out to them from the place where he stood.

"I... am sorry you had to see that, but it's over. She's dead and she won't harm you anymore. You can finally get back to your families, I'll make sure of it." He tried to quickly wipe the blood and dirt at least from his face and offer them a small smile so that they wouldn't fear him.

But when he spoke, the girls jumped, as if they heard the sound of a whip lashing out. Cursing the dead Mistress in his mind, Ichigo slowly turned around, so that he wouldn't face the girls.

"I'm going to look for somebody in the dungeon, so you can try to look for any clothes. I'll be back shortly and then I'm going to get rid of those chains for you."

He moved towards the door and felt relieved when he sensed movement behind him. After a short walk down the stairs, Ichigo started to feel light-headed and a bit out of breath, the after-effect of the pill finally reaching him. Clenching his jaw, he willed himself to move forward. When he arrived to his cell, called out.

"Kazumi, we're getting out of here...?" Seeing the opened cell-doors, the tone of his voice turned into a question and he hastily grabbed a nearby lantern and lighted it up.

He cautiously walked into the cell and took a look around. The cell was empty. Kazumi wasn't there.

"What...?" He didn't even get the chance to be surprised, when he heard cries and screams of agony coming from upstairs.

Gathering all of his remaining strength, he sprang into action and ran up. He stopped before the doors separating the stairs to the dungeon and the spacious room. It wasn't because he suddenly lost the stamina. It was because a small girl opened those doors and fell on her knees with a blade sticking out of her chest.

"M-mister..." Blood gushed out of her small, mouth and she dropped on the floor, dead.

"No...no, no, no. What happened to you?" Ichigo quickly turned her over, refusing to believe his own eyes.

"It was supposed to be over, damn it!" He patted the girl's head and adjusted her hair, so that he could see her face.

Noticing the dead look in her eyes, he felt his tears flow freely as he hugged the small body and cursed again.

"Fuck...FUCK!" The eerie silence that answered his scream ignited his anger again and he slowly put the girl's body down.

Angrily wiping down his tears, he stood up and entered the room. The sight of a shinigami gathering dead bodies of the girls on one place was the first thing that caught his attention. His fists trembled and his reiatsu surprisingly rose again, forcing the shinigami to turn around.

"You son of a bitch..." Ichigo whispered, feeling the hate within him to swell.

"So, you are the one who did this, huh?" The shinigami pointed towards the bodies of the guards and the Mistress.

"Why did you kill them? They were just kids!" Ichigo roared and took a step forward.

The shinigami chuckled.

"Naughty kids should be punished." He answered seriously and raised his hand, pointing his palm against Ichigo, who tensed, not knowing what was going on.

"As you have been naughty as well, you must be punished too... ruining my favorite "House of the Pleasure" just like that. Ts, ts, ts, now I have to go to the one in the 80th Western District, what a drag." The shinigami sighed and started to mutter inaudibly.

_'F-favorite House of the Pleasure? He means that there are more of them? What kind of sick, twisted people live here. Aren't the shinigami responsible for the well-being of the Afterlife?'_ Ichigo felt his stomach twist and suppressed the urge to vomit again.

"...march on to the south! Hadō #31: Shakkahō!" Barely believing his own eyes, Ichigo quickly rolled on the floor, barely dodging a red orb that shot past him and set the nearby couch on fire.

_'What was that?'_

"I see. No wonder that you managed to take care of them, you possess some spiritual energy." The shinigami grinned sickly.

"However, you are still only a soul, whereas I am a member of the 8th Division!" He raised his sword and closed on Ichigo, aiming to pierce his chest.

_'Shit.'_  Ichigo cursed and grabbing the first thing that came to his hand, he managed to redirect the attack and come out unscathed. Using the Shinigami’s surprised expression, he used what was in his hand and smashed the Shinigami’s head with it. He felt the thing in his hand shatter.

It was a plate.

Realizing that Ichigo avoided him with a simple plate, the shinigami angrily swirled around and cut Ichigo on his upper arm. The teen quickly jumped away from the shinigami and feeling that the pain was manageable, he faced his enemy.

"You mean there are more places like this? More atrocities?" Ichigo spit on the ground.

The shinigami, feeling satisfied with the cut he gave to Ichigo, cracked his neck and his face twisted itself into a more devious grin.

"Why of course. For every 80th District there is one "House of the Pleasure". That's why this one was so perfect. Being in the 72nd District, it was a lot closer to the Seireitei, so you wouldn't have to travel so far. Aah, you see? Now you've done it. I suppose I should enjoy killing you." He said and with a quick jump closed the distance between them, slashing with his sword.

Hearing him talk about the places like this as if they were something one could enjoy, Ichigo roared and with his reiatsu rising again, he side-stepped the shinigami and tried to punch him in the face.

The shinigami, however, managed to shift himself in the air, receiving the punch with his shoulder, but it was enough to send him flying. When he fell on the floor, the shinigami screamed in pain, while Ichigo panted, his body getting tired from the pressure being constantly put on it.

"Argh, you fucker! NOW YOU'VE DONE IT!" The Shinigami yelled and using the sword as the support, he raised himself along with his reiatsu.

Ichigo glanced at him and prayed that his body would last. Even if the one in front of him was a shinigami, he felt that he could win. If that was the limit of the Shinigami’s reiatsu, Ichigo had the upper hand.

He purposely turned his head, to see the dead bodies of the girls and his soul responded to his rage, pumping even more spiritual energy into his body, earning a confused look from the shinigami, who, for the first time realized that something was wrong.

"Who are you, brat? This isn't a reiatsu of a normal soul."

Ichigo ignored the words and only glared at the one in front of him.

"Hm, doesn't matter. You'll be dead soon enough!" The shinigami yelled and ran towards Ichigo, armed with a blade.

Ichigo responded and ran too.

Armed with his bare fists and the all-consuming rage.

...

"Are we getting close?" Yoruichi asked anxiously.

Rukia, who was running beside her nodded.

"Yes, it won't take long before we arrive."

"Good, we-." The cat trailed off when its fur suddenly stood up, as if it got goosebumps.

Rukia glanced at Yoruichi with worried look.

"If the spiritual energy that even I'm feeling belongs to him..." Rukia quickly nodded.

Yoruichi mentally cursed.

"... then we have to pick up the pace."

...

Ichigo fell on his knees, panting heavily when his reiatsu plummeted from the highest level to barely being there and supported himself with his elbows. His opponent was lying some distance away in a pool of his own blood, with his right shoulder and his head lying in an unnatural position.

It was obvious that he was dead.

This time, Ichigo couldn't ignore the urge to vomit any longer and he emptied his stomach on the ground. Feeling the temperature from the fire all around him rising, he forced himself to stand up.

He looked around and his eyes fell on the dead bodies of the small girls. He wanted to bury them but with the fire raging all around, he felt that the cremation wasn't that bad. The fire would at least purify their bodies, clean them from all of the suffering they had to live through. Closing his eyes for a moment, he turned around and walked towards the dead body of the shinigami, ignoring the pain from the wounds he received.

Ichigo kneeled and grabbed the sword that was innocently lying next to the corpse.

"If this is how shinigami are, then I don't want to be one, nor I want to use any of their weapons." Ichigo stated and squeezed the hilt of the sword.

"But if it can give me strength, I will."

With that, Ichigo crossed the Shinigami’s dead body and without looking back, he walked outside, a mission to eliminate every single one of the Houses of the Pleasure firmly in his mind.

...

_10 minutes later_

"What happened here?" Rukia was watching the huge building slowly getting consumed with a raging fire with wide eyes, while Yoruichi cursed.

"Shit, it looks like we were late."

The cat glanced at Rukia and jumped at her shoulder.

"Hey, snap out of it. We still haven't found him. Are you sure that he escaped from here?"

Rukia sighed and looked past the burning house, towards the remaining Districts of Rukongai.

"I'm sure."

End of chapter 1.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This story currently stands at 50 chapters and is still far from finished. I will be posting existing chapters in intervals of several days so people don't get overwhelmed or discouraged (Word count so far is above 450k).  
> Tags will be modified as I post new chapters.


End file.
